# “There Is No Good Time”: Georgia’s Prisons Are in Crisis, and the State Won’t Let People Earn Their Way Home > GDC tells people in prison that programs can shorten a sentence. The Parole Board's handbook says Georgia has no good time at all. In a prison system the DOJ calls unconstitutional, Justice Reed reads the state's own paper and lays out a law that would cut sentences in half for people who earn it. **Published**: 2026-10-18 **Source**: https://gps.press/there-is-no-good-time-georgias-prisons-are-in-crisis-and-the-state-wont-let-people-earn-their-way-home/ **Author**: Justice Reed --- Two documents sit on two State of Georgia websites. Both concern the same people. The first is a one-page fact sheet from the Georgia Department of Corrections. Here is how the department puts it: the Performance Incentive Credit program "provides offenders an opportunity to reduce the length of their prison sentence through satisfactory progress in cognitive-behavioral programs, education, vocational, work details, and good behavior." [GDC Performance Incentive Credit fact sheet](https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/fact-sheets/performance-incentive-credit-fact-sheet/download) The second is the Parole Handbook from the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. On page 40, it says this: "There is no good time, gained time, or earned time applied to prison sentences in Georgia." [State Board of Pardons and Paroles Parole Handbook p 40](https://pap.georgia.gov/document/document/parole-handbook/download) Only one of them describes the law. On January 1, 1984, Georgia stopped giving earned time for crimes committed on or after that date, under [O.C.G.A. § 42-5-100](https://gps.press/ocga/42-5-100/). In 1994, under [O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.1](https://gps.press/ocga/17-10-6.1/), it barred earned time and parole outright for a set prison term on any of seven serious violent felonies. What the fact sheet calls a shorter sentence is something smaller. And it's offered inside a prison system the U.S. Department of Justice says violates the Constitution. ## A System in Crisis, by the State's Own Count On October 1, 2024, the Justice Department published what its investigation of Georgia's prisons found. It concluded "that there is reasonable cause to believe that the State of Georgia and the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution." [DOJ Findings Report Investigation of Georgia Prisons Oct 1 2024 p 3](https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-09/findings_report_-_investigation_of_georgia_prisons.pdf) The numbers are GDC's own, and the killing is in them. The Justice Department wrote that "from 2018 through 2023, GDC reported a total of 142 homicides in its prisons, with 48 in the first three years and a 95.8% increase in the latter three years, with 94 homicides." In 2023 there was "a record 35 homicides in the prisons by GDC's own reported numbers." [DOJ Findings Report Oct 1 2024 p 5](https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-09/findings_report_-_investigation_of_georgia_prisons.pdf) The Justice Department says the real count is higher. It wrote that GDC "inaccurately reports these deaths both internally and externally, and in a manner that underreports the extent of violence and homicide in GDC prisons." Over the first five months of 2024, GDC's mortality data showed 6 homicides, "even though at least 18 deaths were categorized as homicides in GDC incident reports." That works out to three homicides in GDC's own incident reports for every one in its official count. And one death that GDC's own investigators found to be a homicide in February 2022 sat in the mortality data as undetermined for two years. [DOJ Findings Report Oct 1 2024 p 55](https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-09/findings_report_-_investigation_of_georgia_prisons.pdf) For all of 2024, GDC told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution it investigated 66 suspected homicides. [AJC Georgia prison homicides outpacing last year Sept 8 2025](https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/09/georgia-prison-homicides-outpacing-last-year/) GPS counted 100, working from reports sent by people inside ([GPS violence profile](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/violence/)). By GPS's count, more than 1,900 people have died in GDC custody since January 2020. Georgia files its deaths with Washington as well, under the federal Death in Custody Reporting Act. For fiscal years 2020 through 2024, the state reported 1,345 deaths in its prisons. Of those, 169 were homicides. California reported 111 prison homicides over the same period, Florida 65 and Texas 41. Each of those three states holds far more people than Georgia. [BJA Death in Custody Reporting Act reported data, prison location](https://bja.ojp.gov/program/dcra/reported-data) Set against the size of each prison system, the gap gets wider. Georgia's prison homicide rate was about 68 per 100,000 people a year. That's more than three times California's, four and a half times Florida's, and nearly twelve times Texas's. Georgia's death rate from all causes, about 543 per 100,000 a year, was the highest of the four. Those rates are GPS's arithmetic: each state's reported prison deaths, divided by its prison population at the end of each year from 2019 through 2023 as the Bureau of Justice Statistics counts it. [BJS Prisoners in 2020 Statistical Tables table 2](https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p20st.pdf) [BJS Prisoners in 2022 Statistical Tables table 2](https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/p22st.pdf) [BJS Prisoners in 2023 Statistical Tables table 2](https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/p23st.pdf) The death counts are the states' own. The federal program says states undercount. The numbers didn't always look like this. A separate federal count, running from 2001 through 2019, put Georgia's average at 250 deaths and 9 homicides per 100,000 prisoners a year. [BJS Mortality in State and Federal Prisons 2001-2019 Statistical Tables table 17](https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/msfp0119st.pdf) The prisons hold more people than they were built for, by a wide margin. GPS traced the design capacity of 35 Georgia state prisons through the state's own budget records from the construction era. Those prisons hold 42,135 people in space built for 20,207. That's 209 percent. In 24 of them, the population is at least double the design. In nine, it's at least triple. Those percentages are GPS's arithmetic on the state's records, laid out prison by prison on our [warehouse page](https://gps.press/warehouse/). The state has already told itself what crowding does. In 2024, a Georgia Senate study committee heard from Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver. The committee's final report says he "highlighted a reduction of inmate-on-inmate violence due to the implementation of single-cell policies." Recommendation five asked the state to "Convert all existing facilities and construct all new facilities to single person, single cell facilities." [Senate DOC Facilities Study Committee Final Report 2024](https://web.archive.org/web/20260205110629id_/https://www.senate.ga.gov/committees/Documents/2024SenateStudyCommDOCFinalReport.pdf) The Commissioner's answer is fewer people in a cell. Across those 35 prisons, Georgia holds twice as many people as the beds it built. The Justice Department also put the systemwide vacancy rate for correctional officers around 50 percent. At ten of the largest facilities, it was over 70 percent. [DOJ Findings Report Oct 1 2024 staffing findings](https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-09/findings_report_-_investigation_of_georgia_prisons.pdf) By GPS's reading, the vacancy rate isn't where the crisis starts. It comes downstream of decisions made above the prison. Georgia holds far more people than it can staff. The record names who wrote this crisis. The General Assembly wrote the sentences. In 1994 it required set terms for serious violent felonies to be served in full. For those crimes committed from July 2006 on, it set the wait for a first parole hearing on a life sentence at 30 years. The Governor proposes and signs the budget that pays for officers and program seats. The Parole Board decides how much of each sentence most people serve. And GDC decides how the people it's sent are housed, after its own Commissioner told the Senate that single cells cut the violence. ## How the Sentences Got This Long The crowding didn't happen by accident. Georgia wrote it into law, one change at a time. - **1994.** The Sentence Reform Act required that a set prison term for any of seven serious violent felonies be served in full, with no parole and no earned time. ([O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.1](https://gps.press/ocga/17-10-6.1/)) - **1995 and 2006.** The Parole Board's own handbook lays out what happened to life sentences. For a crime committed before January 1, 1995, a person serving life "may be considered for parole after serving seven years." From 1995 on, it was 14 years. For a serious violent felony committed on or after July 1, 2006, it's 30 years. [State Board of Pardons and Paroles Parole Handbook p 6](https://pap.georgia.gov/document/document/parole-handbook/download) - **2008.** The Parole Board rebuilt its guidelines and tied its own minimum time to serve to the average sentences Georgia judges hand down. GPS laid out that change in [The Amplifier](https://gps.press/the-amplifier-how-five-unelected-officials-turned-georgias-prisons-into-a-constitutional-crisis/). Seven years became 14. Fourteen became 30. And the one way left to shorten a stay, earning it, was gone after 1983. ## What Georgia Offers a Man Who Does the Work So what does a person in that system get for finishing school, a trade or treatment? The Parole Board answers that in its own annual report. > Inmates deemed eligible by the Department of Corrections for the PIC program may have their TPM (Tentative Parole Month) advanced a few months by completing educational, vocational, treatment programs and work details during their incarceration. The same page says: "The Parole Board Members have discretion to determine if an inmate who has earned PIC through program completions will have his/her established TPM moved to an earlier date." It says the Board "granted 30,710 PIC or PIC points" in fiscal 2025, and that "Each PIC point equals one month that a TPM can be changed to an earlier date." [State Board of Pardons and Paroles FY2025 Annual Report p 22](https://pap.georgia.gov/media/13986/download) Read the words the state chose. - **"A few months."** GDC's fact sheet sets the most a person can earn at 12 months. - **"Tentative."** The credit moves a parole month that's already tentative. It doesn't touch the sentence. - **"Discretion."** The Board decides whether the credit counts at all. - **"Can be changed."** Not "will be." And the GDC fact sheet says who can't earn it. A person must not be "serving life sentence," must have a "sentence length of more than two years," and must not be "serving a sentence with a non-parole eligible offense." [GDC Performance Incentive Credit fact sheet](https://gdc.georgia.gov/document/fact-sheets/performance-incentive-credit-fact-sheet/download) That last line shuts out every man serving a set term for one of the seven serious violent felonies. By GDC's own October 2026 profile, more than 10,000 people in its custody are serving life, life without parole or a death sentence ([GPS Statistics Portal](https://gps.press/gdc-statistics/)). Not one of them can earn a single PIC point. The Board's report counts points. It doesn't say how many people hold them. It doesn't say how many people left prison sooner than they would have without those points. ## What Other States Write Into Law Other states don't leave it to a few months and a vote. - **Denmark** lets a person go home after serving half the sentence when they've made a special effort, including treatment, education, work training or work. [Danish Criminal Code straffeloven § 40 a](https://www.retsinformation.dk/eli/lta/2022/1360) - **Washington** lets people who aren't high-risk, and aren't confined for sex, violent or person crimes, earn up to 50 percent off by taking part in programs. [WSIPP Increased Earned Release From Prison](https://wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1039/Wsipp_Increased-Earned-Release-From-Prison-Impacts-of-a-2003-Law-on-Recidivism-and-Crime-Costs-Revised_Full-Report.pdf) - **California** gives 90 days off for a high school diploma or equivalency, and 180 days each for an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree or a graduate degree. Its rule says that education credit "shall not be forfeited due to disciplinary action." [Judge Couzens on Proposition 57 parole and credits May 2024](https://capcentral.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Judge-Couzens-PROP-57-Parole-and-Credits-MAY-2024.pdf) - **Colorado** gives a year for an associate's or bachelor's degree and two years for a doctorate. [NCSL State Approaches to Sentence Credits archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20260723054112id_/https://www.ncsl.org/civil-and-criminal-justice/state-approaches-to-sentence-credits-earned-and-good-time-laws) - **Indiana** gives up to two years for a bachelor's degree. [Indiana Code 35-50-6 educational credit time](https://statecodesfiles.justia.com/indiana/2016/title-35/article-50/chapter-6/chapter-6.pdf) - **Louisiana** allows up to 360 days of program credit for certified treatment and rehabilitation programs. [Louisiana R.S. 15:828](https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=79349) - **The federal system** gives 10 days for every 30 days of programs, and 5 more for people at minimum or low risk. [18 U.S.C. 3632](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3632) People released on those credits in 2023 earned 10.3 months on average, 16.9 percent of their sentences. [U.S. Sentencing Commission First Step Act earned time credits data snapshot](https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/training/first-step-act/data-snapshot_FSAETC.pdf) These aren't just the lenient states. The Vera Institute lists 18 states where people convicted of violent offenses can earn more than 15 percent off their sentences, and Alabama and North Carolina are on that list. [Vera Institute national survey of earned and good time](https://vera-institute.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/publications/Summary-of-National-Survey-of-States-Earned-and-Good-Time-Earning-Options-Focusing-on-States-That-Have-Few-Offense-Based-Exclusions.pdf) ## What It Did to Public Safety The question every legislator will ask is whether a shorter stay means more crime. The research has tested that. - **California randomized it.** The state's corrections research division used a table of random numbers to pick inmates whose parole dates moved up six months. Within the first and second year after release, the two groups "did not differ on the likelihood of their being returned to prison." [Berecochea and Jaman California Department of Corrections study](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/82800NCJRS.pdf) - **Washington measured it.** Its earned-release law shortened stays by 63 days. The state's research institute found felony recidivism fell 3.5 percent, and "There were no statistically significant differences between the study groups for violent felony recidivism for any of the matching procedures." [WSIPP Increased Earned Release From Prison](https://wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1039/Wsipp_Increased-Earned-Release-From-Prison-Impacts-of-a-2003-Law-on-Recidivism-and-Crime-Costs-Revised_Full-Report.pdf) - **Louisiana audited it.** The Legislative Auditor found people released under the state's good time changes "do not appear to return to custody at a higher rate than the overall return rate." [Louisiana Legislative Auditor report](https://app2.lla.state.la.us/publicreports.nsf/0/cd3ed4e133bfa0df86258ac300628deb/$file/00003c7d.pdf) Other states have counted the effect of credits on their prison populations too. In North Carolina, reforms were expected to leave the state's prisons "nearly 5,000 beds lower than projected." [CSG Justice Center North Carolina justice reinvestment summary](https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/JR_NC_Summary_12_1_2011.pdf) New York estimated that its merit time program led to 24,052 additional releases and saved $369 million. [New York DOCS Merit Time Program report](https://doccs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/09/Merit_Time_Through_2006.pdf) The record also shows how a credit law can fail. - **Credit for being eligible isn't credit for finishing.** In Pennsylvania, people sentenced under its incentive program were reincarcerated more often than a comparison group. The people certified as completing its requirements did better. [Pennsylvania DOC 2018 RRRI report](https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/cor/documents/about-us/statistics/reports/2018-rrri-annual-report.pdf) - **Credit without programs.** The federal Inspector General found that 24 percent of people released early on First Step Act credits, 9,819 of 41,548, hadn't completed a single program. [DOJ Office of the Inspector General First Step Act evaluation](https://oig.justice.gov/reports/evaluation-federal-bureau-prisons-use-first-step-act-funding-and-implementation-first-step) - **Bad math.** Alabama cut its good time in 2023 with a bill named for a deputy killed by a man "erroneously released on good time." [Alabama Reporter on SB 1](https://www.alreporter.com/2023/04/15/ivey-signs-good-time-bill-into-law/) Every one of these failures points to the same fix. A person should get credit for the programs he actually finishes. The state should calculate release dates correctly. And the programs should actually have room. ## What the Law Would Have to Say The credit has to sit in the Code as a cut to the sentence itself. A credit that only moves a tentative month the Board "can" change is a request. It isn't a credit. A Georgia law built on the record above would: 1. **Cut the sentence in half for a person who earns it.** Any crime, any sentence. A person who meets the rehabilitation requirements, by finishing the programs in their case plan, going to school or learning a trade, working, and keeping a clean record, earns time off until the sentence is cut by as much as half. Denmark and Washington already set the ceiling at half. 2. **Take the time off the sentence itself.** The amounts are written into the statute. GDC applies them when a person finishes. Nobody votes on it. 3. **Reach people serving life, and make parole at the halfway point the rule.** For a life sentence, the same credits shorten the wait before the first parole hearing. Half of 30 years is 15, about where Georgia set it for crimes committed from 1995 to mid-2006. At that point the law should say the person shall be released, unless the record shows a specific reason in writing why they shouldn't be. For a person who has done the work, that reason will be hard to find. Life without parole has no date to cut, so it would need its own change in the law. 4. **Pay for completion, not enrollment,** and protect education credit from being taken away, as California does. 5. **Fund the seats and report the results.** Every year: who's waiting for a program, who finished, how many days came off, and where those people are a year later. Today, Georgia's law goes the other way. Under [O.C.G.A. § 42-9-42(c)](https://gps.press/ocga/42-9-42/), "No inmate shall be placed on parole until and unless the board shall find that there is reasonable probability" that the person will live as "a respectable and law-abiding person." In 1994, the full federal appeals court over Georgia took up the state's parole laws and held: "We agree with the Board that Georgia's parole system does not create a liberty interest in parole protected by the Due Process Clause." It went on: "Conversely, the Georgia statutes actually create a presumption against parole." [Sultenfuss v. Snow 11th Cir 1994 en banc](https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/678573/stephen-sultenfuss-charles-mcmulling-v-wayne-snow-jr-james-t-morris/) The word that changes that is "shall." When Montana's law said its board "shall release" a person who met the standard, the U.S. Supreme Court held that "The Montana statute, like the Nebraska statute, creates a liberty interest in parole release." [Board of Pardons v. Allen 482 US 369 1987](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/482/369) Other states write it that way now: - **New Jersey:** an adult inmate "shall be released on parole at the time of primary parole eligibility, unless" the record shows a reason. [N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.53](https://law.justia.com/codes/new-jersey/title-30/section-30-4-123-53/) - **Michigan:** since 2018, its board needs "substantial and compelling objective reasons stated in writing" to deny parole to a person its guidelines rate as a high probability of success. [Michigan Public Act 339 of 2018](https://web.archive.org/web/20251223190016id_/https://capitol.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2017-2018/publicact/pdf/2018-PA-0339.pdf) - **Mississippi:** since 2021, eligible people "shall be released from incarceration to parole supervision on the inmate's parole eligibility date, without a hearing before the board," if they've met their case plan and kept a clean record. [Mississippi SB 2795 2021](https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2021/html/SB/2700-2799/SB2795SG.htm) Whether the General Assembly can require release from a Board the Georgia Constitution created is a question GPS found no court has decided. The ban on earned time comes from a statute, not the Constitution. The Constitution allows the General Assembly to require that these sentences be served in full. It doesn't require it. Georgia's Attorney General has written that the limits on parole during those minimums are "the clear prerogative of the General Assembly." [Georgia Attorney General Opinion 95-4](https://law.georgia.gov/opinions/95-4) What the General Assembly wrote in 1994, it can rewrite. ## Why It Matters A sentence that can be shortened by doing the work gives every man inside a reason to change. Finish school. Learn a trade. Stay out of trouble. Come home ready to work. Be someone the neighborhood is glad to see. Federal prison staff saw it happen. After the First Step Act, they reported "an increased interest in program participation among individuals in prison, which they believe is a direct byproduct of the FSA's early release incentive." [Federal Bureau of Prisons First Step Act annual report June 2024](https://www.bop.gov/inmates/fsa/docs/first-step-act-annual-report-june-2024.pdf) It's also a way to bring the population back to a number the state can staff and control, and to do it without building a single new cell. Georgia still has this choice to make. California waited. In 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an order that capped California's prisons at 137.5 percent of design capacity. The Court noted that "The State's prisons had operated at around 200% of design capacity for at least 11 years." [Brown v. Plata 563 US 493 2011](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/563/493/) Today Georgia's 35 prisons sit at 209 percent. --- ## Call to Action: What You Can Do Awareness without action changes nothing. Here's how you can help push for accountability and real reform: **Join the GPS Advocacy Network**: Sign up at [https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/](https://gps.press/become-an-advocate/) and we'll advocate on your behalf every week. GPS identifies your state legislators, crafts personalized letters on the most pressing prison issues, and sends them directly to the representatives who represent you. You receive a copy of every letter. It takes two minutes to sign up, and we handle the rest. **Send a 60-Second Message**: Pick an issue, get a ready-to-edit message with the verified facts already in it, and email your state House representative and senator directly from your own inbox at [https://gps.press/send-a-message/.](https://gps.press/send-a-message/.) No signup, nothing stored. It takes about a minute. **Tell My Story**: Are you or a loved one affected by Georgia's prison system? GPS publishes first-person accounts from incarcerated people and their families. Submit your story at [https://gps.press/tellmystory](https://gps.press/tellmystory) and help the world understand what's really happening behind the walls. **Contact Your Representatives**: Your state legislators control GDC's budget, oversight, and the laws that created these failures. Find your Georgia legislators at [https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/](https://gps.press/find-your-legislator/) or call Governor Kemp at (404) 656-1776 or the GDC Commissioner at (478) 992-5246. **Demand Media Coverage**: Contact newsrooms at the AJC, local TV stations, and national criminal justice outlets. More coverage means more pressure. **Amplify on Social Media**: Share this article and tag @GovKemp, @GDC_Georgia, and your local representatives. Use #GAPrisons, #PrisonReform, #GeorgiaPrisonerSpeak. **Message the Board of Corrections**: The citizen board that oversees the GDC publishes no contact details for its members. GPS built the missing front door: pick a board member and a policy message and send it from your own email at [https://gps.press/write-the-board/.](https://gps.press/write-the-board/.) **File Public Records Requests**: Georgia's Open Records Act gives every citizen the right to request incident reports, death records, staffing data, medical logs, and financial documents. Start with the GPS Action Toolkits at [https://gps.press/toolkits/.](https://gps.press/toolkits/.) The Open Records Toolkit walks you through what to ask for, gives you ready-to-file request templates, and tells you what to do when the state says no. File directly with GDC at [https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.](https://georgiadcor.govqa.us/WEBAPP/_rs/SupportHome.aspx.) **Attend Public Meetings**: The Georgia Board of Corrections and legislative committees hold public meetings. Your presence is noticed. **Contact the Department of Justice**: File civil rights complaints at [https://civilrights.justice.gov.](https://civilrights.justice.gov.) Federal oversight has forced abusive systems to change before. **Support Organizations Doing This Work**: Donate to or volunteer with Georgia-based prison reform groups fighting for change on the ground. **Vote**: Research candidates' positions on criminal justice. Primary elections often determine outcomes in Georgia. **Contact GPS**: If you have information about conditions inside Georgia's prisons, reach us securely at GPS.press. --- ## Part of Something Bigger This article is part of the [GPS Reform Agenda](/our-vision/), two active campaigns to transform Georgia's criminal justice system. **[Vision 2027](/vision2027/)** THIS SERIES Three model bills for the 2027 Georgia legislature. The legislature doesn't need new laws. It needs to [enforce two dormant statutes](/the-sleeping-giants/) it already passed. **[End the Warehouse](/end-the-warehouse/)** Transform Georgia's prisons from punishment to rehabilitation. Two tracks: litigation to reduce overcrowding + evidence-based programs that work. [Read the full GPS Reform Agenda →](/our-vision/) --- ## Further Reading **[The Amplifier: How Five Unelected Officials Turned Georgia's Prisons Into a Constitutional Crisis](https://gps.press/the-amplifier-how-five-unelected-officials-turned-georgias-prisons-into-a-constitutional-crisis/)** *How the Parole Board decided how much of each sentence people serve, and turned that dial up.* **[Georgia's $40 Billion Mistake: How Bad Science and Federal Bribes Created a Constitutional Crisis](https://gps.press/georgia-truth-in-sentencing-40-billion-failure/)** *Where Georgia's 1994 truth-in-sentencing laws came from, and what they have cost.* **[Who Builds the File Five Members Vote On? Georgia's Parole Guidelines and the One Unit That Checks Them](https://gps.press/who-builds-the-file-five-members-vote-on-georgias-parole-guidelines-and-the-one-unit-that-checks-them/)** *Five Board members vote on Georgia parole cases, but staff build the file they read.* **[Three to a Cell: Georgia's Commissioner Says Single Cells Cut the Violence. Four Prisons Do the Opposite.](https://gps.press/three-to-a-cell-georgias-commissioner-says-single-cells-cut-the-violence-four-prisons-do-the-opposite/)** *The Commissioner's own reasoning on crowding and violence, set against how four prisons are actually housed.* **[What's Really Behind Georgia's Prison Crisis?](https://gps.press/whats-really-behind-georgias-prison-crisis/)** *The root causes of the crisis inside Georgia's prisons.* --- ## GPS Intelligence System The GPS Intelligence System maintains living research profiles that aggregate data, news, settlements, and analysis on Georgia's prisons and the issues defining them. The profiles below provide deeper context for the issues raised in this article: **[End the Warehouse](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/end-the-warehouse/)** *GPS's research on how far Georgia's prisons are filled past what they were built to hold.* **[Violence](https://gps.press/intelligence/issue/violence/)** *The record of homicides and violence inside Georgia's prisons, and how the counts differ.* --- ## Explore the Data GPS makes GDC statistics accessible to the public through several resources: - **[GPS Statistics Portal](https://gps.press/gdc-statistics/)**: Interactive dashboards translating complex GDC reports into accessible formats, updated within days of official releases. - **[GPS Lighthouse AI](https://gps.press/ask-ai/)**: Ask questions about Georgia's prison system and get answers drawn from GPS's investigative archive and data analysis. - **[GPS llms.txt](https://gps.press/llms.txt)**: A single machine-readable index of every GPS data resource, published using the open llms.txt standard. Point any AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) at this URL and the model can navigate to facility profiles, intelligence briefs, mortality records, statistics, and the full investigative archive, with no other configuration needed. It is the fastest way to ground an AI conversation in verified GPS data. - **[GPS Public MCP Server](https://data.gps.press/mcp)**: For AI tools that support the Model Context Protocol (Claude, ChatGPT, and others), connect directly to GPS's data: read-only tools covering population, facilities, mortality, parole, the Georgia Code, settlements, and more. Every answer arrives with its source link and citation built in. For a walkthrough of how to put these resources to work with AI, see **[How to Use GPS Data with AI Tools](https://gps.press/how-to-use-gps-data-with-ai-tools/)**: a step-by-step guide for researchers, advocates, families, and journalists analyzing Georgia prison conditions, statistics, and policy with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Contact GPS at media@gps.press for access to underlying datasets used in this analysis. --- ## About Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) Georgia Prisoners' Speak (GPS) is a nonprofit investigative newsroom built in partnership with incarcerated reporters, families, advocates, and data analysts. Operating independently from the Georgia Department of Corrections, GPS documents the truth the state refuses to acknowledge: extreme violence, fatal medical neglect, gang-controlled dorms, collapsed staffing, fraudulent reporting practices, and unconstitutional conditions across Georgia's prisons. Through confidential reporting channels, secure communication, evidence verification, public-records requests, legislative research, and professional investigative standards, GPS provides the transparency the system lacks. Our mission is to expose abuses, protect incarcerated people, support families, and push Georgia toward meaningful reform based on human rights, evidence, and public accountability. Every article is part of a larger fight: to end the silence, reveal the truth, and demand justice. ![GPS Footer](https://gps.press/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GPS-Ad2.jpg) ---